Shots heard as Aristide's supporters battle police

Residents have accused riot squad of killing at least 13

MICHELLE FAUL, Associated Press

Published 5:30 am, Friday, October 29, 2004

PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI - Gunfire echoed through the streets of Port-Au-Prince on Thursday as supporters of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide battled police whom residents have accused of executing at least 13 people two days earlier.

The charred carcasses of vehicles blocked a main road of the capital and in some slum neighborhoods, residents locked their doors as pro-Aristide militants shot at police from behind the wreckage.

Increasing chaos

It was unclear if anyone was wounded or killed in Thursday's violence. But along Port-au-Prince's seaside road, gunfire was reported and people told a radio station that four people were killed by armed civilians. The reports could not be independently confirmed.

The surge in violence marks growing chaos in Haiti and an increasingly difficult challenge for a U.S.-backed interim government that has promised elections next year. A month of violence has left at least 62 people dead — not including the 13 people residents said were executed by police on Tuesday.

People who said they were witnesses and relatives of the victims described the police executions, while occasional gunshots whizzed around Fort National, a warren of alleyways and one-room homes in the capital.

'Shot him in the mouth'

"I was on the roof taking clothes off the line when my friend Reginald was trying to run away from (the police)," said
Renemise Joseph
, 23. "They shot him in the mouth. Then they dragged him away and I heard another shot. We couldn't see anything else because when they arrived they shouted: 'Everybody get down, get down!'"

She said she saw men with black hoods, masks and helmets, the typical uniform of the Haitian riot police squad.

Latortue said it was definitely not an police operation, and suggested the attackers were agents of Aristide trying to destabilize the country. "These black uniforms, you can buy them anywhere," he said.

Latortue mentioned no plan to investigate the killings.

Joseph identified her dead friend as Reginald Francois, 25. His brother Gary Francois said he saw Reginald's body and seven others at Port-au-Prince's general morgue Wednesday. He said his brother's hands were bound with a black cord.

Truck like those of police

Francois said the gunmen arrived in five vehicles, including a blue pickup like those used by police and a white Nissan like those driven by Haitian senators. None had license plates.

Another brother, Luc Francois, said the victims didn't have jobs, but they never hurt anybody.

"They passed their time playing music, playing dominoes, watching television," he said. "The only other thing they did was smoke some weed. They had no guns. They were never into anything violent. They were not into politics."

Neighbors said they heard young men pleading for their lives, shouting, "Have mercy, have mercy, don't shoot!"

An old woman afraid to give her name said, "They didn't ask them anything. They just shot them."